


Beyond the Fire

by DenDragon14



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Flashbacks, Gen, Good Brother Luther Hargreeves, No Incest, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-13 04:26:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19243810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenDragon14/pseuds/DenDragon14
Summary: The Hargreeves family goes camping. While everyone is asleep in their tents, Five experiences a PTSD episode about the  apocalypse and Luther is the one he finds comfort in.





	Beyond the Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Have this little one-shot because my mind is shot and I'm recovering from a cold and my brain won't cooperate with me on my multi-chapter stories. Plus, I wanted to write something with Luther and Five being brotherly toward one another. I apologize in advance if this isn't that great.

It had been Allison's idea that they go camping. Five had agreed simply because he knew if he refused, they'd coerce him one way or another. And frankly, he'd grown annoyed rather quickly of them begging and harassing him to do things and go places. So they packed, managed to dig up some tents that were stored away deep in the bowels of the house and grabbed their bug spray and khaki shorts and had driven out to a campsite far from the hustle and bustle of society and, honestly, Five was actually quite pleased with the solitude the forest had to offer. He'd forgotten the beauty of nature and how green the world around him could be. After literally dropping into 2019 primarily set on preventing the apocalypse, Five hadn't really thought of what he'd do afterward when he managed to succeed, he hadn't thought that far ahead. At the time, it had been safer to assume that he might fail since he wouldn't have to miss a future that would never happen.

But this future, where he went on camping trips with his family....although he wouldn't openly admit it, he liked this future; perhaps present was a better term to use. However, the only downside was that he was still stuck in the body of a thirteen-year-old while his mind had experienced much more than thirteen years of life. Time travel is a crapshoot after all; he'd never gotten the equation correct to fix his error and he'd wasted enough time on trying to find the correct equation to bring himself and his family from one point in time to another safely. Although he would love to have an older body, he didn't want to risk screwing with time anymore. He'd accepted that where they were right now was just fine...For now.

Night had fallen several hours ago and everyone had gone to bed in their respective tents. Vanya and Allison shared one, while Klaus, Diego, Five (and Ben) shared another, while Luther had a tent to himself due to his size. He'd spent the better part of an hour staring up into the dark abyss, his mind rambling aimlessly before he'd snuck over the snoring figures of Klaus and Diego and crawled through the tent flap. He sat down on a thick fallen branch and relit the fire with a skill none of the others had; they were all surprised that he'd lit a fire so effortlessly. All his years alone had forced him to rely on himself.

Along with being forced on the trip, Five had joined in with a hope that perhaps he could learn to change his ways.  Although his mind was much older than his siblings', this old dog still wanted to learn new tricks, and if that meant learning that he could rely on others than he'd try his damndest. And although they might say otherwise, Five was attempting to be more friendly-more brotherly- towards them. He knew they probably didn't see it, but he was trying.

A gentle breeze passed through the forest, gently shaking the tree limbs and rippling through the grass. The wind had come from the perfect direction and sent the campfire smoke right into his eyes. He coughed as it entered his lungs and his eyes started to tear up. He rubbed away the tears and shifted over to a log adjacent to where he sat so the wind wasn't blown right into his face.

Ash started to rain from the night sky.

Five blinked and directed his gaze skyward and the specks of ash vanished. He sighed, irritated that his tired brain would try and harass him. He'd thought he was done with that kind of shit--damn PTSD. He stared into the dancing tendrils of flame and tried to focus on all the nighttime forest sounds that one never hears when they lived in the city. The chirping of crickets. The occasional hooting of an owl in its roost. The fresh, strong scent of pine trees and the soft babbling of a river. It was truly peaceful.

But then the damn wind blew through the trees again and not only did it blow more smoke into his eyes and throat, but the whistling of the wind sounded like haunting whispers of ghosts in the trees. When he had found another place to sit out of the trajectory of the smoke, Five noticed that ash was falling from the sky again. He blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. But it didn't stop.

 Ash fell from the sky like fresh snowfall.The near black sky turned grey as smoke swirled all around him and higher up into the atmosphere. He inhaled and coughed as his lungs drew in the ash and smoke. After forty-five years of being in nothing but this, he'd thought his lungs would have gotten used to the oxygen depletion; he'd thought wrong apparently.

_No. No._  
  
He heard himself whimper as the ash continued to flutter down to the ground like freshly powdered snow. He glanced around him and their campsite and the forest had disappeared. Once where a lush forest had stood around him now was nothing but burnt toothpicks stuck in the dirt, reaching up to a sky where night and day blurred into one. His gaze turned back to the fire. It seemed to have grown and spread all around him, engulfing him a ring of flame. The heat of the fire had him sweating and his hands were clammy and his body vibrated. He knew this wasn't real, but the feeling of agony that washed over him as he found himself surrounded by an apocalyptic wasteland had him drowning in fear. _This isn't real. This isn't real._

Moans that weren't his own caught his attention and he found himself staring at several shadowed figures standing across the fire. Beyond the flames, their faces made hollow looking with how the firelight hit them stood his siblings. All six of them. Despite only having found four of them in the rubble of the destroyed academy. Their bodies were scratched, bruised and broken, their skin smudged with dirt and dried blood. They said nothing, only stared at him with their cold dead eyes, their irises clouded over with a white film. The vacant look in their eyes said all they needed to say, and Five felt his blood slowly turn to ice the longer he stared into each of their eyes; He desperately wanted to look away, but it was as though he was looking into their very essence of being

What he saw was a hallucination, he knew it wasn't real. He'd grown accustomed to those during his time with Dolores in the apocalypse, but sometimes the hallucinations felt all too powerful. His heart pounded hard against his chest as though it were trying to escape the confines of his rib cage. But he could only stare, frozen in place.

His hands trembled and he closed them into fists against his thighs as he grit his teeth in attempt to regain his composure. All the while, ash continued to rain down around him. 

* * *

The stuffy tent felt as though it was suffocating him. It was so hot; it didn't help that he was wearing sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt; even though he was with his family in the middle of the forest, he still felt horribly self-conscious of them seeing his deformed body. When he ruminated on it, he wasn't sure if he'd ever become comfortable with it. It made him a freak, and many other people reacted as such. Growing too uncomfortable to sweat away in his tent, Luther struggled out of the tent that he had to himself and wasn't all that surprised to see Number Five's small, hunched over silhouette at the fire, his back to him.  
  
When they were at home and there were the odd times Luther had been awake at the wee hours of the morning, Five was normally up too. He thought about mentioning that it wasn't healthy to be up all hours of the day since Luther had only seen Five asleep two times since he suddenly dropped into 2019 but decided against it since he knew that he'd get an earful from him.

Due to his size, although Luther tried to be quiet, his footsteps were audible as he made his way over to where Five sat, who seemed to take no notice to his presence.  
"Five?" Luther lowered himself down onto the log next to Five and glanced over at his brother, who he noticed was shaking. It couldn't be from the cold, he thought considering that although it was cool, it was not cold. The wind that blew through the trees every now and then was warm.

Five had a faraway look in his eyes, fixated on the flames of the fire, or rather, something beyond the flames. Luther was surprised with the amount of smoke the campfire produced that Five was able to stare into the flames without blinking. However, his eyes were watering, although Luther wasn't sure if that was from the smoke or if it was because he was actually crying. His eyes wavered slightly side to side, as though he were scanning something  
  
"Five?" He inched closer to his brother, unsure of what to do. Luther's hand itched to reach out and touch his shoulder, but he and the others found out quickly enough that Five was touch averse to most people. Luther doubted it'd go well, but by the lost, almost panicked look in Five's eyes, he thought that intervening might be helpful.

* * *

A warm touch on his shoulder drew him out like a vacuum. The ash, the smoggy sky, the ring of fire around him vanished as reality rushed back to him and he inhaled suddenly, as though he had just come up for air after being underwater for an extended amount of time. He blinked several times, vaguely aware of the wetness on his face. He flinched as he caught sight of someone sitting next to him, eyeing him carefully. Luther sat next to him, his giant form instantly dwarfing him in comparison. His eyebrows were drawn downward in concern while a frown pulled at the corner of his lips.  
  
"What?" Five hissed. The word was forced and if Five could sense the tears in his own voice, he was sure Luther could sense it too.  
  
"Are you okay?" Luther asked tentatively. Five ignored the question and stared into his brother's eyes, overcome with relief at seeing the blue irises, filled with concern, and not the white film that was associated with the eyes of the dead. They were not the eyes he'd just seen, glaring at him from across the campfire, silently berating him for not being present when they'd all fallen in combat. He exhaled shakily and sniffled back a further onslaught of tears. Seeing the eyes of the dead, especially those of his deceased siblings, still haunted him and made his blood run cold every single time. He'd never got used to it, even when he had been in the apocalypse. At least now, there were people around to comfort him if he sought it out.

He pulled his brother into a hug and pressed up against Luther's chest, able to hear his heart pumping blood throughout his body, Five felt his body relax. After a moment, Luther reciprocated the affectionate gesture and wrapped one of his giant paws around Five gently, as though he might break Five, and given his ability, he probably could. Although Five normally shrunk awake from physical contact like a cat from water when it needed to be bathed, the touch was welcomed for a change and although he'd hate to admit it, much needed. The tension in his shoulders disappeared and he leaned into the touch. He hated it when his brain liked to play a joke on him and pulled him back into the apocalyptic hell he'd spent nearly five decades in. The flashbacks, in his opinion, left him in a weak state where anyone could take advantage of him. And if there was one thing he hated, it was being taken advantage of.  
  
He hated how he needed to remind himself every day that the whole crisis had been averted; they'd been able to stop the apocalypse from happening. He had nothing to worry about, for the time being anyway. He still wasn't entirely sure if he'd managed to shake off the Commission, but it had been several months and everything remained on the calm side. Yet, despite things falling back into a sense of normalcy, Five felt wrong in so many ways. His body didn't fit his mind and his mind didn't fit in the present timeline.   
  
"Can I sleep in your tent with you?" Five asked. He felt a heat creeping up his neck in embarrassment; it was such a childish question and he wasn't a child but he didn't want to return to his tent where Diego and Klaus were. The fact that they both snored was just one of the reasons why he was up at such an ungodly hour anyway.  
  
"Uh, it might be a tight squeeze," Luther said, "But I can bring my sleeping bag out here." He got up from where he sat and hauled his sleeping bag out of his tent and over to his brother. He unzipped the sleeping bag all the way to use as a blanket and wrapped it around Five's shoulders.

"What about you?" he asked. Luther shrugged and gestured to the long sleeve shirt he wore. Even in the summer, the night was still moderately warm and Five was impressed that Luther managed to keep a long sleeve shirt on without perspiring to death.  
  
"I think I'm okay in this." For the longest time, the only person he'd had for comfort had been Dolores, and although a faithful companion and trusted confidant, she wasn't exactly the most cuddle-worthy. She was like him and didn't enjoy being held too often, but there were times where Five craved a friendly touch. He found himself nuzzled up against Luther's side, who draped an arm over Five and the two of them fell asleep under the stars in comfortable silence.

* * *

"Well isn't that just the most adorable thing."  
  
"Shh, you'll wake them up."  
  
"Take a picture, Klaus. It's so sweet." 

He heard a snapping sound; the flash a of a camera going off.

Luther cracked open his eyes, squinting in displeasure as he was blinded by the morning sun's rays. Once he allowed his eyes to adjust, he saw that all of his other siblings stood around him in a semi-circle, smiling down at him. He shifted slightly, growing uncomfortable as his mouth opened to phrase a question.  
  
"Luther, don't move," Klaus hissed, camera in hand, "You'll wake the little gremlin nestled by your side." Confused, and still half asleep, Luther glanced down at his side, surprised to see that Five had spent the entire night sleeping next to him. He smiled. He'd half expected Five to creep away back to his own tent; Luther thought he'd seemed a bit embarrassed when he'd ask if he could sleep in his tent although Luther was touched that Five even suggested it.

 Luther managed to get to his feet and gently lift Five into his arms. Luckily enough, one of his brothers had left the tent flap open and he gently placed Five back into the tent he'd been sharing with Klaus and Diego (and Ben too if ghosts were included) and silently applauded himself for not waking their youngest-oldest sibling. He was half way out of the tent when Five stirred in his sleep.

"Luther..." his voice was slurred, still half asleep. For the briefest of moments, Luther considered pretending not to hear his brother calling out for him. 

"I'm here." 

Five's hand felt around blindly before he dropped it rest on top of Luther's giant hand. Five yawned and patted Luther's hand, his eyes half closed.

"....thank you, Luther."

For a moment, he was confused as to what Five was thanking him for; he hadn't really done anything. But for Five, he supposed he had done something to comfort him. He  stared down at their hands and smiled. Despite how much protest Five made about not being a child, it was impossible to  _not_ treat Five like a child from time to time; the fact that he looked like a young teenager didn't help his case either. If his brother had been fully awake and alert, Luther was sure that Five would definitely not have mentioned anything about last night. He definitely wouldn't verbally be thanking him, but he had to admit that it was sweet to see this softer side of his brother. And although he still claimed to be fifty-eight year old trapped in a teenager's body, seeing him wrapped up in a sleeping bag with his hair slightly mused from sleep, at the moment, Luther only saw Five as his little brother.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope you liked this.! Honestly, I wrote this mostly for me because I don't see enough platonic, brotherly Five and Luther. Anyways, I apologize for any typos or errors; I tried my best to edit this while fighting my cluttered and scattered mind. Kudos and comments are always appreciated! And if you have any constructive criticism, that is also welcomed too!


End file.
